Hammers and Strings
by nuclear so and so's
Summary: The pipe immediately began emitting puffs of different colors, the smoke twisting and spiraling and forming different features, dragons that would float into the trees and bite the leaves. MWPP era. Marauders being devious. Please read/review!


A chilly, biting cold was sweeping through the grounds. Most of the students were inside on that Saturday afternoon, curled up in their common rooms or, maybe for the more studious students, spending their evening in the library working on some weekend homework. Very few students were still milling on the grounds outside, though it was still very light out. The only four that could be found were well hidden by an overly large tree, grouped around the trunk, both to hide from the wind and from prying eyes.

One of the brunettes, the most handsome of the crew, wore nothing but a button-up white shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, ignoring whatever chills were trying to get him to go back into the warmth of the castle. He held an overly-large pipe in his hand, and his smile was huge. He tipped his head back to laugh and shook his head, taking his free hand to put his fingers on another's shoulder.

"Moony, you're an animal. Why are you standing out here looking like a blasted Eskimo?" He demanded, giving his friend a little shake. The other, with darker blonde hair and shimmers of gray coming through despite his young age, permitted a roll of his eyes.

"I'm hardly an animal, Padfoot. And I don't know if you've noticed, but it's rather cold out here." Moony's attire was comical in comparison, wearing not only a long coat but a scarf draped around the lower part of his face.

"Oh, alright, you little woman." Padfoot teased, pulling his wand out of his back pocket and tapping it onto the pipe, which immediately began emitting puffs of different colors, the smoke twisting and spiraling and forming different features, dragons that would float into the trees and snap at the leaves. "We'll just be out here another minute."

The boy with the darkest, most flyaway hair grinned, nudging his cloaked friend in the side. "You really need to stop worrying. A bit of the flu wouldn't hurt you- you could do to miss a class or two on occasion, really. Binns would never notice, just go floating about the room like nothing was amiss despite the loss of your furious note-scribbling."

Moony was used to this kind of jibe, and he grinned, though it was barely visible thanks to his scarf- you could see the crinkle of his eyes. "I can't help it that I'm particularly fond of Binns- he doesn't remember your names, and this is a first for anyone that passes through Hogwarts, living or dead."

The last of them stood stock still, wearing nothing but a jacket but shivering quite a bit nonetheless, wide eyed, turning his body to glance toward the castle doors on occasion. "Padfoot, hurry up, they're bound to come out here and check soon, you've got those dragons eating the plants."

"Such a worrier, Wormtail!" Sirius scolded, taking a giant puff of his pipe and blowing out the air around them, which still created different colors and spirals. Closing his eyes and tipping his head back, he let out an "ahhh" noise, taking another puff and handing it off to the next person in the circle, who happened to be Prongs. Always the showoff, he sucked up his own puff and, when blowing it out, blew it in rings, which then coiled in on themselves and fluttered out into the wind.

The next person in the circle was Moony, and though he seemed to protest for a moment, his smiling friends got the best of him, so he removed his scarf and took his own puff. His was the largest and, when he blew out the smoke it came in slow puffs, the animals not coming out as dragon but large, four-legged animals which galloped toward the sky as if they were hungry for the sun.

"Do you think that's in my genes?" He mused quietly, looking up at them serenely, almost fondly. The other seemed off in their own little words, Wormtail staring at the pipe as it was handed to him, looking at it as if it were a red-hot poker. None of the others seemed to notice this, though, and after a moment's hesitation he took it, took the smallest puff he could muster, then coughed a little as it went down. Wide eyed, he turned to look around, ready for some sort of reprimand, but all of the boys seemed to be positively obsessed with the colorful smoke.

It was Moony who first snapped out of it. Shedding his coat, as the smoke was causing quite a warmth around them, he sighed. "It'll be time to go into the castle soon, I expect."

"Always the party pooper." Prongs joked, seeming to come back down to planet Earth with him. Padfoot, meanwhile, was putting his wand to the pipe again and stuffing it into one of his coat pockets. Moony went about pressing his wand to different items of their clothing until a smell of fresh linens seemed to be everywhere. After a moment the four of them set off toward the castle, positively relaxed, every inch of their skin exuding some sort of positive aura.

The four sixth years were not unnoticed by the student body as they came in. All of them seemed to be walking with a bit of a swagger, and it seemed that since their time outside most of the students had come down for dinner. As they made their way into the great hall and took their usual spots at the Gryffindor table, another Gryffindor leaned toward them and gave a sniff.

"I smell madidus." Said the girl, eyes narrowed, darting from one boy to the other. The look of her gave off the air of one who was not used to keeping her opinions to herself, with brown hair that gave off fiery red tones, freckles all over the bridge of her nose, and honey-colored eyes.

"One should not always tell others the things they smell." Padfoot replied serenely, reaching forward to tweak her nose.

"Oh, come off it, Sirius." She replied, rolling her eyes and going back to her dinner. Moony, though still looking very serene, gave her an apologetic smile, as if he could say sorry for his friend.

The girl soon left with a small gang of other girls, up toward the Gryffindor common room. Once she was out of earshot, Prongs burst into a smile.

"That one's smart. Maybe we should change her position in the box to an untouchable." He jerked his head toward the spot where she had just been.

Sirius's eyebrows went up at this new idea, and he turned to his best friend, shocked. "Are you trying to tell me you're willing to let someone join the place where only Lily Evans resides?"

James's face changed for just a second, but then he shrugged, almost as if trying to laugh it off. "She's untouchable for a different reason. Anyway, she's a good one, I think she should be worth more to get, you know? She's not a 4th year Hufflepuff who came back from the summer…." He reached forward and gestured toward his chest.

"I think we should consult the box." Sirius said darkly, and with that, the four of them stood up.

* * *

"Turn out the lights!!" Sirius demanded of the last one to enter the room, and with a flick of his wand Peter extinguished all of the lights in the dormitory. They all crawled to a spot beside Sirius's bed. He pulled three boxes out from under his bed. They were each rather large, ornate, locks in the shape of hearts stuck to the fronts. Sirius pulled a necklace from between his shirt and chest and stuck the keys dangling from it in each of their corresponding boxes.

All four of the boys watched in awe as, when the boxes opened, miniature, ghost-like replicas of their classmates appeared in front of them. The first box had the most girls, some of them jockeying for position, some of them contenting themselves to the back. The middle had less girls, all of them looking rather calm, smiling or waving on occasion, but generally seeming to be uninterested in the fact that they were stuffed in a box. The last box showed only one girl, and she stood up, arms crossed, a visible scowl on her face.

"Oh, Evans." James said fondly, leaning forward to poke the replica in the stomach, as ghost Lily leaned forward and made an attempt to bite his hand. "I love it when she gets rough."

Remus rolled his eyes as Sirius barked out a laugh. "You want to move Ara to the untouchable box, do you, Prongs?" Remus tapped his wand on the box as Sirius spoke, and all of the other ghosts melted back into the box, some of them relieved, others jumping up as if to get their attention. The last to stay looked exactly like the girl they had just seen downstairs- except here, she was fast asleep.

"Just like here to not give a damn about us." Remus mused, tapping the box again. Ara seemed to be latched to the end of his wand by her hand, and now dangling there, she looked most displeased.

"It's not that she's impossible to attain, I just figure the stakes should be higher." James explained, shrugging. "I need a better challenge for you, Padfoot, and we all know you love to attain the impossible."

"I'm against it." Remus said, almost sharply. "I think the untouchable box should be reserved for those that are untouchable because of their emotional attachments… and since none of us fancy her, she shouldn't be there. She should stay with the possibilities." Remus tapped his wand again and she fell sprawled onto an invisible floor, mouthing silent swear words.

"Well, Moony's word is gold." Sirius said simply, and he shut the three boxes again, tapping them with his wand so that the locks re-locked themselves.

"You'll have to pick someone by tomorrow." James reminded him, giving him a beady-eyed stare. "If you don't, Wormtail and I get to pick someone for you."

"Wormtail would pick a real prize for me, I expect. I'm not fussed. Nonetheless, I suppose we could go attempt to scope out our winner."

Remus began to put the boxes back into their rightful places, giving the middle one a rather furtive stare, before following the boys out into the common room.

"Those boxes are a godsend." James said happily, skipping down the steps two at a time. "Sorting girls by capability to snog. Why didn't someone come up with this before now?"

But they were nearing a group of girls now, and with a great and loud SHUSH, Sirius walked toward the armchairs by the fireplace to kick a first year out of his favorite place to relax.

* * *

Hopefully this start isn't too long-winded. This whole fic will be based around the Marauders and their sixth year, and if I get enough fans, will continue into the seventh year. I plan on incorporating a few original characters, and lots of character we've already heard of will be making appearances. I figure this is exactly what would be up their alley- smoking pipes and sorting girls by snogability. If you like this story please review, or if you have any criticism I'd love to hear it! Please give me any kind of feedback you can!


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